19 MARCH 2008 NV K9's Bosco locates Hawthorne, NV Chinese Cemetary
VIDEO FOOTAGE PICS & FULL REPORT
With little help and no backgropund information, a general search area was determined by the US Army, Mineral County, NV, and the Mineral County Horseman's Association. NV K9 was given the task of trying to locate a 100 plus year old unmarked Chinese cemetary beleived to be in a three acre area. The video clip at the bottom is long and somewhat lengthy but Bosco's indicate was very intentional on the areas marked. Our camera malfunctioned during the taping due to battery failure
Bosco, a dual purpose K9, is mainly a Cadaver Detection Dog that also performs protection work. Bosco has also been trying his hand at AKC Rally recently completing his first leg. It appears as if Bosco has located this unmarked cemetary and this was later confirmed by the ICF.
Previous to this exercise, we had no idea if Bosco could find a grave that was so old. Cadaver Detection Dogs are trained differently than Historical Human Remains Detection Dogs and the scent signatures differ.
Bosco seemed to really excel above and beyong our expectations on this task. This find was later verified and confirmed by the ICF out of California. The Insitute for Canine Forensics and their teams came to the site approximately one month later and verified this location for preservation and eventual registration into the Historical Grave Registry. Bosco hit on 23 sites. Many of the spots Bosco hit on were also hit on by the ICF and other teams. Some additional sites were hit by the ICF team as well and a clear cemetary was able to be delineated for preservation. Some of Bosco's hits were measured and found to be the size of graves of the approximate estimated size of the average Chinese person in the late 1800s or early 1900s. Also, some small hits were received that would be the approximate size of the grave of a small child or infant in a few instances. We are in hopes that Mineral County, Nevada can now put the families memories to rest and teh area preserved as a memorial for them.
Chinese Deaths and Burials at Hawthorne, Nevada 89415
Research has identified the names of at least six persons known to have been buried in the Hawthorne Chinese Cemetary. Research has also indentified that at least ten others were likely buried in the cemetary. The earliest date recorded in this research for the death of a chinese person in the area is 1886, some five years after it is known that Chinese were first working in the area of Hawthorne, Nevada. It is likely that others, not identified through this research, were also buried in the cemetary.
The following are the deaths and burials identified through research. Names in CAPS text are those documented to have most likely been buried in the cemetary, but for which there is no actual record available. Names in regular text are burials that are known to have actually occurred in the cemetary.
Name Death Date Age at Death CHARLEY 3JUN1909 UNK KEE, CHUNG 10JUN1909 63YRS KEE, INFANT SON 16MAR1892 5 DAYS KEE, LUM SUP 28JAN1900 UNK HI, LOW DEC 1889 UNK HOP, LEE 4JAN1912 UNK LEE, GAN? 31JUL1902 UNK LEE, SAM 1DEC1909 50YRS Qui, Infant(daughter) Charley 5JUL1901 3YRS unknown chinese man JAN 1887 UNK unknown chinese man JAN 1897 UNK unknown chinese man 2SEPT1899 UNK unknown chinese man 19FEB1902 UNK unknown chinese woman FEB 1886 UNK WAI, HONG POST 1905 UNK WAI, SHE 15FEB1897 UNK It was the tradition at the time for the remains of Chinese citizens to be returned to China.
Generally only the remains of males were exhumed and returned to China and this only occured sometime after burial in the United States.
An Explanation of the process was recorded in the Weekly Nevada State Journal of December 1, 1883.
A review of newspaper articles in the Walker Lake Bulletin newspapers, published in Hawthorne, NV did not uncover any instance of the removal of Chinese remains in Hawthorne or elsewhere in Mineral County. Some editions of the newspaper are no longer available and it is possible that such event did occur, but no recorded evidence has been found to date.* Unfortunately, our camera went on the fritz and the battery died during this search event. However, there are a few very clean definitvely positive hits that are demostrated on the video. Furthermore, the ICF Canine Forensics Group was able to come in approximately one month later to perform an exercise and further validate the results.